Japan's best street fashion contest in Kyoto City
Kjeld Duits, a Dutch journalist and a photographer living in Ashiya City, Hyogo Prefecture, will carry out 'Your Best Street Fashion' contest to distribute worldwide through the Internet pictures of street fashions obtained from the public. Pictures of fashions by nine people winning the contest will be taken at the Kyoto International Community House in Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, on Feb. 29.Applications to the Duits-running Internet site 'Japanese Streets' (http:// Japanesestreets.com/) have closed in mid-February. The site, opened in November 2002, transmits pictures of Japan's street culture, and 70,000 people from about 150 countries access the site each month. Contest-winning fashions are introduced at the site, and the sponsors said pictures of contest winners may possibly be carried by major fashion magazines in New York.
The Kyoto City International Foundation will also hold a lecture meeting to promote international understanding, called 'The Global Perspective-Discovery of up-to-date Japanese Culture on the Net,' with Duits as a lecturer. Duits will explain about the new media and social phenomenon.
Curtis Chamber Orchestra to perform in Hyogo and Osaka
The Curtis Chamber Orchestra of the Curtis Institute of Music, a leading music school in the United States, will perform at five places in Hyogo Prefecture and Osaka City from March 5 to 11 at the invitation of the Hyogo Prefectural Government. The performances will be held as part of the 'Hyogo Invitational' undertaking, an annual event by the prefectural government to provide opportunities for exchange and guidance as well as for the public to enjoy performances at affordable prices.The Curtis Chamber Orchestra is made up of 26 students, mostly playing string instruments, who were selected from among the members of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra whose visiting conductors are world-famous. This is its first visit to Japan. The performances will be held at the Kobe Shimbun Matsukata Hall in Chuo Ward, Kobe City, on March 5, at the Kasai Civic Hall in Kasai City, on March 6, at the Yoka Chomin Kaikan Hall in Yoka Town on March 7, at the Akashi Seibu Citizen Hall in Akashi City on March 10 (all in Hyogo Prefecture), and at the Izumi Hall in Chuo Ward, Osaka City, on March 11. To be conducted by Joseph Silverstein, a noted violinist who has long been the concert master for Boston Symphony Orchestra and a professor at the Curtis Institute of Music, the orchestra will perform works by Vivaldi and Mozart and others.
Shanghai fashion-related products fair 2004
'Shanghai Fair 2004' to exhibit fashion-related products by Shanghai enterprises in showcases and support business dealings is being held at the IBPC Osaka Network Center in the Asia and Pacific Trade Center in Suminoe Ward, Osaka City, until March 15. The fair is sponsored by Osaka Municipal Government, Osaka International Business Promotion Center, the Osaka Business Partner City Council, the Shanghai Association of Foreign Economic and Trade Enterprises, and the Osaka Office of the Shanghai Municipal People Government Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Commission. At the fair, 44 enterprises in Shanghai interested in the Japanese market are showing baby and kids products, house-wear products, sports wears, daily necessities of households and other commodities.The sponsors are providing information concerning commodities shown chiefly to medium- and small-size enterprises in Osaka City, but people in general can visit the fair free of charge. The pictures of exhibited commodities can be seen on the home page of the IBPC Osaka Network Center (http://www.ibpcosaka.or.jp). On March 12, business talks between Japanese and Shanghai enterprises are scheduled.
Photovoltaic energy system completed in Shiga
A photovoltaic energy system with a power generating capacity of 30kw has been completed on the rooftop of the Shiga Prefectural Government's main office. The system was introduced as part of a prefectural government program to reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses. The system was built under the 'photovoltaic energy new technology field-test undertaking,' a joint research with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). The cost was 24.78 million yen.The system can generate about 30,000kwh annually, and the emission of carbon dioxide can be reduced by some 20 tons per year. The prefectural government said the volume of emission cut is equal to the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by about 1,400 cedars aged 50 a year.
Historic Kansai: Miyazu in Kyoto tells the characteristic of the Japanese
By Junzo TanakaWith an old ballad every Japanese sings beginning 'In Miyazu of Tango...,' Miyazu City in Kyoto Prefecture is quite well-known. A visit there has found that the city is clearly presenting the characteristic of Japanese people, doubling your joy.
What is the characteristic of Japanese people? It is a stance to consider old things important, while positively taking in new things-no one-sided stance. In recent years, many cities in Japan have not been able to afford to take such stance, and the historical heritage of Japan has regrettably been disappearing, but here in Miyazu, no such thing occurs.
If you walk to the west from JR Miyazu Station, you can find quite an attractive structure beyond the Miyazu City Office. That is the St. John the Baptist Church (Miyazu Catholic Church).
If you are permitted to enter into the church, you will surely be impressed. There are no chairs. The floor is wooden. Furthermore, the congregation floor is covered with tatami. On the tatami is beautiful light coming through stained glasses. You can have a calm feeling beyond description. You need to get a permission to enter into the church because there have recently been too many tourists for observation purposes only, giving rise to fears that the calmness at the praying site for local believers can be disturbed.
Why are so many people going there? The church was constructed by Louis Relave, a French father, in 1896 with cooperation from local charitable people. It is a wooden, one-story structure. The gable is at the facade, and in the upper part, there are circular windows and windows with arabesque-patterned sculptures. Called a Romanesque style, the church is said to be the oldest wooden structure with such style in Japan. Thanks to extraordinary efforts by church-related personnel, the structure has been maintained for 108 years.
Also strongly left in the city is the image of the Edo period. The Imabayashi House in the neighborhood, a residence of a silk crepe wholesaler, is a typical structure of a merchant house at that time. In a short distance away from the house, there is the imposing Mikami House, a house of an old family producing sake, operating ships and wholesaling silk.
The house is a tangible cultural property designated by the Kyoto Prefectural Government, and its garden is a noted scenic beauty named by the prefectural government, but its back rooms and a tea-ceremony room are rent out for gatherings.
Not only the old church but also the houses of old families are still in existence. These scenes have become quite rare in Japan, but the characteristic of Japanese people can be seen in Miyazu.
Those knowing that Miyazu is a city where there is Amano Hashidate, one of the three most beautiful places in Japan, are better visit Miyazu on the occasion of their visit to Amano Hashidate. They will surely feel that ancient Japan is a place where their mind becomes peaceful.
Kansai in Focus: Introduction of next-generation streetcar LRT being studied
The Council for Kinki Regional Transport, an advisory organ to the Kinki District Transport Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and other organizations are trying to work out a recommendation about new railway construction plans in the Kansai region to be submitted this autumn.Noted as a new railway is the Light Rail Transit (LRT), a next-generation low floor-type streetcar operated in Europe and the United States.
Amid turmoil over the railway traffic system in Kansai with the discontinuation of unprofitable railways and new railway plans still unrealized, high expectations are placed on the LRT, whose construction cost is cheap and which is environmentally friendly.
In Kansai, new railways are being built-the Osaka Loop Line between Shin-Osaka and Kyuhoji, the Osaka Municipal Subway No. 8 between Itakano and Yuzato, the Keihan-Nakanoshima New Line between Temmabashi and Tamaebashi, the Hanshin Nishi-Osaka Extension Line between Nishikujo and Namba, and the Kyoto Municipal Subway Tozai Line between Nijo and Tenjingawa.
In 1989, the then Council for Transport Policy recommended the construction of railway lines in various parts of Kansai for completion or the start of work by 2005, but the work on 10 of such lines has yet to begin or has only partially begun. These lines include the Naniwasuji Line linking northern Osaka City to the south, the Kita-Osaka Express Extension Line between Senrichuo and Minoh City, and the Nishiakashi-Seishin Line. An application has been filed by Hankyu Corp. to give up plans to build a line between Awaji and Shin-Osaka, and Mizuma Railway Co. has returned a license to extend its lines. The reason is no prospect for profitability.
Then, the proposal for the introduction of the LRT has come. In January, the Council for Sakai Public Transport, an advisory body to the Sakai municipal government, submitted a report to the municipal government, saying, 'The LRT is desirable as a means of transportation friendly to the people and the city. Tracks are to be laid at both sides of a road so that passengers can get on and get off from streetcars from sidewalks. The LRT should be built as a symbol of Sakai for its vitalization.' The municipal government favorably responded to the report, and said, 'We will study the matter to realize it at an early date.'
Sakai, the second largest city in Osaka Prefecture, has lines chiefly linking its north to the south. Therefore, the council had been studying the idea of constructing a new line linking the east to the west since early last year. The municipal government hopes to open the new line in 2014. If realized, it will be Japan's first LRT.
Incidentally, Hankai Tramway Co., a streetcar operator between the southern part of Osaka City and Sakai, decided last spring to discontinue the unprofitable operation between Yamatogawa and Hamaderaekimae, and asked the municipal government to buy it. The municipal government will likely study the matter as part of its new line construction plans.
The LRT is said to have many merits, such as cost-saving, friendly to environment and the aging people, and speedier than buses and conventional streetcars, or higher in transport capacity. At the same time, however, there are many problems to be resolved before the LRT can be introduced in Japan whose roads are narrow in width, crowded with cars and have many traffic signals. Therefore, the idea to introduce it is making no progress in Kyoto, Kobe and other cities.
Sakai City's moves are attracting attention because the LRT is regarded internationally as a new city traffic system in the 21st century, but for its realization, support from the state is required, including the designation of the places where the LRT is introduced as special zones and eased regulations. (J)